Why, How, What
by Fazadragonhart
Summary: Find why the problem exists. Find how to solve the problem. Find what to do to execute the solution. Such is the surefire way to do everything: from getting A grade paper to…taking care a frustrating crush to a silver-eyed girl? Weiss probably should find new approach to her newfound love problem, instead of treating it just like another college assignment. Comedic Fluff College AU


**First Question: Why**

A surefire way to success is to probe down the heart of a problem and find the cause, formulate the solution and plan the means to execute it.

To success—and to get stellar A-grade paper—it all started with "why?".

Weiss warily eyed someone couples of tables away, leaving her Dust mineralogy notes ignored. She sipped her cheap espresso as her hand moved to scribble something on the available space between formulae and hand-drawn diagrams in wild lashings.

" _Why do I fall for that cookie monster dolt?"_

Groaning softly, she raked her tousled hair.

She found the causal root of her problem, but no solution whatsoever—and it gave her headache. Not to mention she got a mountain of quizzes and assignments for this week.

Once again she pored over the crucial question written on her notebook, then stared at the silver-eyed girl happily munching on a pack of cookies. As much as she found it adorable, she couldn't help but cringed at how sloppy it was with cookie crumbles peppering the girl's cheek and mouth. Would that childish girl ever grow up?

She shook her head and set her fingers in their scribbling spree again.

" _How will…"_

She paused, bit her lips and set a mountain of mental dynamite off to kick start the brainstorm.

" _How will I take care of this aggravating feeling?"_

There was a nagging feeling inside her, berating her why she approached this just alike another essay or paper to write. There was no tested method nor backing theories in problems of love and romance, no complimentary C for her should there be any mishaps. it's either A or E. Success or failure.

Lifting her eyes up, she frowned when she found the object of her frustration was nowhere in sight.

"Hi Weiss!"

Weiss gasped sharply and slapped her notebook shut. "What was that for, dolt?" she hissed.

Ruby grinned with a naturally cute head tilt of hers. "What's with that dead serious face? Studying for a quiz?"

"Y-Yeah…" Weiss tried not to stammer—and nearly failed. "And thank you so much for breaking my perfectly concentrated focus."

"Sorry," chirped Ruby. She took something from her hoodie pocket and put it on the table. "Will this make you for give me?"

A cookies and cream candy bar. Ruby knew well her one and only sweet guilty pleasure. "Thank you," Weiss mumbled as she pawed the candy bar. "That doesn't mean you're completely off the hook."

This didn't bid well for Weiss. Everything about Ruby was just too much for her. Her heart became a Dust reactor in verge of bursting and her brain was a tropical jungle full of raging wildlife attacking mining crews and equipment.

Painfully, she looked away from Ruby's puppy eyes and escaped, using her next class (which was still an hour away) as the excuse.

If only she had taken business course like her father would've dictated, she would've never met that cute dolt in string of Dust-related freak accidents: from spilling Dust to her limbs to a catastrophic explosion of a Dust mining compressor machine. Granted, they never ended up destroying the lab or themselves and her grade was miraculously unaffected. However, Ruby had become more than just her bad luck charm with Dust—she had become a staple element in Weiss' haphazard college life.

As a mining engineering student, she had few courses shared with students of mechanical engineering. Ruby happened to be in all those classes she took. As if life hadn't had enough of fun with her, Ruby suddenly became her new dormitory roommate after Ciel Soleil had to drop out due a typical Atlesian family problem: forced arranged marriage.

Come to think of it, Weiss possibly would have gone through the same woe her former roommate had. Until this day, she was thankful for her nonsensical spurt of bravado on that fateful day. She got slapped, disinherited and exiled after standing up to a heartless dictator in the shape of her father, but it was worth her freedom. Through her frantic daredevil attempts and Winter's moral and financial support, the freshly exiled ex-heiress now become a broke but happy mining engineering student of Beacon Institute of Technology. Had she always been a perfect subservient Schnee heiress, she would've attended Atlas University's business school instead, together with her random snobby rich fiancée in misery.

There was no need to mull over the past, so she moved on and focused on the biggest problems in her present time—academic pressure and Ruby.

Weiss was confident with her academic hitch by sacrificing her sleep cycle, helped with endless supply of coffee and energy drinks. However, no amount of caffeine or sleep deprivation would solve her Ruby problem.

Truly, she felt like stealing some Dust from the lab and mix it with her dose of Monster Bull. If there's something that could solve everything, it will be death.

But hell no! Weiss Schnee would never commit suicide just because a love problem concerning her dolt roommate with frustratingly cute—!

"Miss Schnee, you look really excited today, maybe you can give your insight regarding stability of Dust open pit mining along fault lines?"

Gulping, Weiss felt every pair of eyes were on her. Dust, what a dolt Ruby was, enough to put her into a trouble even without being there.

Fortunately, the professor was satisfied with her answer. Sighing, she examined her notebook again.

" _Why do I fall for that cookie monster dolt?"_

She could answer her professor's tricky question, but not this simple one.

Could it be because Ruby was her roommate?

It couldn't be for something that cheap. Ciel had been her roommate longer that Ruby had to this date, but never did she harbor any feelings towards her poor Atlesian ex-roommate. Although she couldn't deny being in close proximity in daily basis might bolster whatever feelings that could grow.

Oh, please don't say it was love at the first sight. Certainly there was no love in the air when Weiss suffered burns from caustic Dust mixture her new lab partner named Ruby Rose spilled on her. Not every first meeting was rosy and cute and exciting like in romance stories; some gave you first-almost-second degree burn and a girl frantically apologizing with teary silver eyes.

"Then why…" Weiss muttered, her eyebrows knotted tightly.

In the end she left the lecture room with half of her brain hemisphere filled with Dust theory and mining essentials and the other half with Ruby. She inevitably would get stuck with Ruby by the end of her day, but her mining site management course let her hole up in the library with something to do other than distancing away from her roommate slash crush. Her scroll buzzed, knowing it'd be just a message from Ruby she ignored it and drowned herself into her work.

Done with her assignment, her heart and mind felt lighter and clear. Who would ever think college work can be therapeutic? She set home with brisk but easy pace, taking a stop on the information board to hunt for any available opportunity in scholarship. While actually had received one, it wasn't enough to cover her tuition fee, let alone for her living expenses. She was looking for major grants and completely fine with their contractual obligations binding her after graduation, but lately none were eligible for mining engineering students.

If this continued, she would have to suffer between breaking her back to feed herself and merciless fight to maintain her GPA. She was doomed to starving and getting Cs in next semester.

No, she wouldn't burden Winter by asking more. Being a military officer didn't provide you much financial security, especially not when you also pay for your sister's education.

No, she would never take that Satan's scam called student loan!

Her dulls eyes lit up when she found a scholarship program offering full tuition free coverage and decent monthly allowance, only for mining engineering students. The prospective applicants would be bound to five-year work contract after graduation, but it was two birds in one stone—financial security before graduation and career security after graduation. She _must_ grab this mouth-watering offer before anyone else—

Weiss deflated when she saw the company sponsoring it. Schnee Mining and Energies.

Of all companies in this world, why it had to be a _Schnee_. And why? Schnee companies— _her father_ —were too proud and stingy to give out grants to poor students. Was this a PR stunt? Or perhaps her father taunted her, knowing how financially devastated she was, using this as the lure to trap her back to his game. Or simply just to humiliate her.

From a wealthy Schnee heiress to a prospective Schnee corporate slave. What a fairy tale.

Suddenly all her good mood shattered to smithereens. Her future was bleak and her hunt was a failure. Her father laughed at her face and her status as a broke student through a poster promising a grand grant.

She was barely aware when she reached her dorm room, until a screechy voice pierced her eardrums.

"Weiss! Where have you been? Why don't you reply to my texts or pick up the calls?"

Weiss checked her scroll. 26 messages in her inbox and 13 missed calls. All from Ruby.

"Calm down, dolt. I've just been doing my assignments and all. It's not like I was kidnapped or—!"

Ruby hugged her. Waft of strawberry from her half-damp hair mixed with soft soapy fragrance of rose teasing Weiss' nose. Before the snow-haired girl could pull away, Ruby tightened the hug and set Weiss' heart to a state nearing lethal arrhythmia.

"Your face looks so frustrated and pale today, so I'm worried if there's something happened to you." The silver eyed girl looked at Weiss. Her lips twisted in a wry smile. "You never tell me what's wrong."

It was hard to tame her wildly racing heart, but Weiss managed it just enough not to lost to the stampede in her chest and the burning scarlet on her face. She put her best smile to put Ruby at ease. "It's alright, Ruby. I'm all fine. There's nothing to worry about." Her finger poked Ruby's forehead and pushed it away. "Let me go, you dolt."

Ruby laughed lightly and set Weiss free. The hungry snow-haired girl was scrounging for her last pack of instant noodles when she found a box of cheap (but tasty) cookies and cream bars on her desk.

Ruby loved sweets so much Weiss worried for her dental health and her prospect of type II diabetes, but she preferred chocolate and strawberry flavor over anything else. She wouldn't buy white chocolate bars this many, unless—

"Did you buy this for me?"

Ruby smiled and nodded. "Yup! I get you some fried rice for dinner too."

"You know you don't have to."

"But I want to, to help you cheer up," said Ruby. Her trademark cute smile was still there. "Besides I have buy one get one free coupon for the fried rice."

Weiss was too tired to argue—and too flustered by Ruby's attentiveness—and had her dinner with her roommate. The fried rice was too oily for her taste, but she wouldn't be a beggar who choose. She ate her meal in silence, trying to shove as much oil-laden pieces of spiced rice to fill her empty belly.

After begrudgingly swallowed half of her dinner, she finally realized Ruby had been staring at her for some time. "Is there something on my face?"

"Weiss, you have something bugging your mind and it's not your essays or lab reports."

"I told you Ruby, it's nothing."

"Weiss…"

"Alright, you win!" Weiss threw her hands in exasperation. "I was reading the information board, looking for any grants or scholarship I can take. Then I found this one, offering full coverage for tuition fee and quite an amount for monthly living expenses—"

"Weiss! That's great! You should totally take it—"

"—but if I take it, I have to work at Schnee Mining and Energies for five years."

"Oh." Ruby fell back to her own fried rice, poking it unsurely.

"I know this is funny and I won't get mad if you laugh at me for this, but when I read the poster I feel… humiliated. Shamed." Weiss set her flimsy plastic spoon down before she broke it into two. "But again, what's the purpose of my own self-worth, anyway? I need money and my father was ready to throw it on my face in form of a scholarship. All I have to do is apply, let him stomp on my pride and be his entry-level engineering slave after graduation."

"You should never ever let anyone humiliate you! Not even your father! You'll find better scholarships soon, because you're hard-working and smart, even when uhhh you have to do stuffs with only one hand after that accident with Dust..." Ruby blushed momentarily at the mention of embarrassing accident and sharply shook her head. "Anyways, you're intelligent and independent, and I love you for that!"

While Ruby's scatterbrained encouragement barely relevant to her problem, it was truly endearing for Weiss. Perhaps Ruby didn't mean "love" as in that way, but it was enough to set her insides fluttering furiously.

"I believe in you, Weiss."

Touched and shocked, Weiss blinked back the lone tear on her left eye and put up her best assertive smile. "Thank you, Ruby."

They finished their dinner in more comfortable silence. Weiss took a shower and traded her sweaty day clothes with her nightgown. Ruby already laid on her own bed and wrapped her blanket around her body.

"You're going to sleep early?" Weiss asked, taking out her notes and laptop for another session of studying.

"Mm, I have replacement class at 7."

"I see. Good night, Ruby."

"Don't sleep too late, Weiss. And don't drink too much Monster Bull!"

Weiss groaned and stored her can of energy drink back under Ruby's watchful eyes. She left her stash of Monster Bull alone, opting for the lone cookies and cream bar she hadn't eaten. The crunch of the cookie inside mellow sweetness of white chocolate accompanied her study night, together with Ruby's soft snore.

" _Why do I fall for that cookie monster dolt?"_

Weiss let her gaze linger adoringly at her sleeping roommate, curled up cozily while cuddling her wolf plushie. She had just eaten her candy bar, but she still had another whole box for her.

And she wondered if that was the answer to her "why?".

Now it was the time to move on to the next one:

" _How will I take care of this aggravating feeling?"_

"That doesn't sound right…" Weiss mumbled under her frown. She crossed it a rewrite it with better phrasing.

" _How will I get this feeling across?"  
_

Weiss smiled to herself, then opened the box to take another candy bar.


End file.
